Twitter mimics Facebook with profile redesign

Twitter's new profile design looks a lot like Facebook

Twitter has unveiled a redesign of its user interface that appears to be based heavily on Facebook's profile pages.

The new web profile lets users upload a larger profile photo, customise their header (in a similar way to Facebook's 'cover photo'), and show off tweets that have received the most engagement with followers.

They can also 'pin' one of their tweets to the top of their page, to give followers an idea of who they are and what they're interested in, and filter other users' timelines to show only the tweets they are interested in.

The new profile setup is available today to a small group of users, and will roll out to all users in the coming weeks.

“The new profile design is the latest step in the ‘facebookification’ of Twitter and is in line with the news that Twitter is to introduce photo tagging and phase out hashtags," said Javier Burón, founder and CEO of Twitter analytics platform SocialBro.

"The main objective of this process is to remove artificial barriers and make Twitter more accessible as it seeks to sign up new users."

Twitter's user base in the UK increased 34.1 per cent in 2013 to reach approximately one-quarter of all UK internet users, according to eMarketer, after an increase of 40.6 per cent in 2012. That figure is expected to drop off rapidly, slowing to single-digit growth by 2015.

Meanwhile, UK ad revenues increased 203.5 per cent in 2013, accounting for 11.5 per cent of its total worldwide ad revenues. Twitter took 0.7 per cent share of the UK digital advertising market in 2013, which totaled £6.3 billion, according to eMarketer.